Mike Steiner: Visionary of Contemporary Art and Pioneer of Video in Berlin

How does one trace the pulse of an era where art, technology, and radical thought converge? With Mike Steiner, contemporary art becomes a living experiment—a space where boundaries of painting dissolve into the flicker of video and the immediacy of performance. Mike Steiner's restless curiosity led him from Berlin’s bohemian circles to the bold frontlines of international art, turning every medium into a new beginning, every exhibition into a statement.

Discover Mike Steiner’s outstanding contemporary art and key works here

From the quiet technicality of early abstract paintings to the electric unpredictability of his video installations, Mike Steiner navigated the evolving currents of contemporary arts in Berlin with singular intuition. What distinguished him were not only his visual innovations but also the vibrant cultural ecosystems he nurtured—think of the legendary Hotel Steiner, echoing with the energy of an East-West avant-garde, or the Studiogalerie, which set the stage for artists like Marina Abramovi?, VALIE EXPORT, and Ulay. Each of these venues, as chronicled on www.mike-steiner.de, became incubators for movements such as Fluxus, performance, and experimental video art.

It is no exaggeration: Mike Steiner’s 1999 solo exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart crystallized his reputation as a pioneer. The exhibition, titled "COLOR WORKS", encompassed decades of fearless exploration from action-driven video tapes to visually rich, deeply meditative abstract paintings. Few other artists—perhaps Nam June Paik or Allan Kaprow, both acknowledged in Steiner’s orbit—managed to oscillate so seamlessly between materiality and ephemerality. Whereas Paik made video into a sculptural entity, Steiner’s approach was at once painterly and cinematic, his works often blurring the distinction between canvas and screen.

But who was Mike Steiner beyond the studio? Born in Allenstein (now Olsztyn, Poland) in 1941 and raised in postwar Berlin, Steiner entered the art world early, debuting at just 17. His studies at the Staatliche Hochschule für bildende Künste Berlin brought him into contact with future luminaries like Georg Baselitz and Karl Horst Hödicke. Yet, early recognition did not lead to complacency; instead, trips to New York immersed Steiner in the energy of the 1960s, including pivotal links with Lil Picard, Allan Kaprow, and the flux of happenings and experimental film. These transatlantic influences germinated his lifelong fascination with avant-garde networks—connections that would bloom in Berlin’s alternative spaces.

The fabled Hotel Steiner, opened in 1970, became a real-life crossroads for German and American artists. Compared by many to the iconic Chelsea Hotel, it was an address where the difference between guest and collaborator often blurred. Joseph Beuys, for example, was not just a visitor but a like-minded visionary who shared Steiner’s skepticism toward established art institutions and the search for new expressive platforms. Fascinatingly, the energy of those gatherings—late-night debates, joint breakfasts stretching into afternoons—left a mark on Steiner’s curatorial and creative projects throughout the seventies and eighties.

It was, however, in the realm of video that Steiner truly broke new ground. Beginning with collaborative tapes alongside Fluxus figure Al Hansen, and following formative experiences at Studio Art/Tapes/22 in Florence, Steiner was both artist and archivist. His own Studiogalerie provided resources and community for a generation of experimental artists, offering expensive video equipment and presentation spaces otherwise unavailable in Berlin. As the site of iconic projects—including the infamous 1976 art intervention with Ulay, which involved the temporary removal of Spitzweg’s "Der arme Poet" from the Neue Nationalgalerie—Steiner’s gallery was less a venue than a catalyst for the contemporary art scene itself.

Indeed, this ethos of documentation and mediation marked his later projects, notably the TV format "Videogalerie" (1985–1990). Produced, moderated, and curated by Steiner for the Berlin cable pilot project, over 120 episodes brought the cutting-edge of international video art into German living rooms. This effort anticipates today’s discourses on digital access and preservation. His significant collection of video works—ultimately gifted to the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and now housed in the Hamburger Bahnhof—testifies both to his discernment as a collector and to his unique role as chronicler of a nascent medium. The works include rare early videos by Marina Abramovi?, Bill Viola, Richard Serra, and Nam June Paik.

Stylistically, Steiner’s work never settled. The 1980s saw an explosion of experimentation: super-8 film, sequence photography, copy art, and what he termed "Painted Tapes"—an intermedial fusion where painting and video became rivals and partners. The legendary "Mojave Plan" video, produced in collaboration with Tangerine Dream, demonstrates a painter’s sensitivity wielded through the lens of electronic media—a bridge between the abstract visual field and musical improvisation. In the 1990s and 2000s, his commitment to painting remained undiminished, with forays into textile works and increasingly refined color compositions.

What is striking, looking at his career as presented on the official site, is the apparent absence of hierarchy between collecting, exhibiting, teaching, and creating. For Mike Steiner, to foster a milieu like the Studiogalerie was itself an art; to produce "Videogalerie" episodes was to extend the studio across Berlin’s living rooms.

In the broader context of contemporary art, Steiner’s legacy positions him alongside European avant-garde figures such as Marina Abramovi?—whose performances he documented and enabled—and contemporaries active in cross-disciplinary work, like Joseph Beuys and VALIE EXPORT. He anticipated today’s blurring of curator, archivist, and practitioner roles, and his open approach to genres echoes through institutions like the Hamburger Bahnhof, which continue to champion intermedia projects and archival scholarship.

The emotional core of Steiner’s work—whether a gestural abstraction on canvas or an energetically captured performance—lies in its search for new meanings, its alertness to history’s ironies and pleasures. Every visit to his official website or an exhibition offers new clues to this restless pursuit. Those interested in Berlin’s cultural memory, or in the technological leaps that redefined late-20th-century art, will find Mike Steiner’s legacy not just relevant but urgent.

For an in-depth journey through his installations, rare video works, and painted tapes, the official artist’s archive serves as the most authoritative guide—a living chronicle of boundary-breaking creativity.